The idea is to have a set of yoga schools by the second International Yoga Day on 21 June when the prime minister or some other dignitary could hand over certificates formally to such schools. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

New Delhi: After launching a scheme to certify yoga instructors in February, the Quality Council of India (QCI) will kick-start a programme to certify yoga training schools in the country starting 1 April to standardize the quality of professionals coming out of such institutions.

“We have a meeting of the steering committee of QCI on 28 March which will be chaired by yoga guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The committee will finalize the scheme on that day,” said Anil Jauhri, chief executive officer of the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies which functions under QCI.

Jauhri said though the programme will be launched on 1 April without fanfare, the idea is to have a set of yoga schools by the second International Yoga Day on 21 June when the prime minister or some other dignitary could hand over certificates formally to such schools.

The certification will outline the syllabus but not the courses for institutes. For example, examination for level 1 certification of a yoga Instructor will involve 30% marks and 70% practical, while the level 2 certification for a yoga teacher will involve 50% marks each for practical and theory.

R.P. Singh, secretary general at QCI, said the ministry of Ayush has been pushing for uniformity in practice for yoga professionals. “At ,present there is a lot of variation in the quality of professionals coming out of the existing yoga schools. We are trying to standardize the quality of output through this scheme. We will define the methodology and the output matrix, while we will leave the courses to be decided by the yoga institutes. It will be a voluntary scheme and if a yoga institute provides certified courses by us, it will increase its credibility and also those of the professionals coming out of it,” he added.

Singh said initially he is targeting to have at least 10 institutes to be accredited by the International Yoga Day on 21 June. “We first expect government-funded yoga institutions like Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga to drive the scheme,” he added.

On 11 December 2014, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared 21 June as the International Day of Yoga. The declaration came after an appeal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to UN General Assembly on 27 September 2014. The adoption of the resolution saw 175 nations as its co-sponsors, the highest number of co-sponsors for any UNGA resolution of such nature.